Ready to Go Commercial? Read This Article!

The latest issue of WineMaker magazine has a good article written by Betsy Parks highlighting some great tips and insight from professional winemakers that made the move to commercial winemaking. Click the link below to access the full text of the article:

10 Tips for Going Pro

I have laid the top ten list out below along with my comments on how we are thinking about these critical focus areas here at Covered Bridge Cellars:

1. DO THE HOMEWORK - I guess it goes without saying that deciding to launch ANY new business requires conducting a lot of research and due diligence. We crunched a lot of numbers and asked a lot of questions before making the leap and committing capital to this endeavor. Links to many of the documents we used to get up to speed on the industry can be found right here on the PDF Library page of our blog. There really is a tremendous amount of information on the web about all facets of this exciting industry if you do a little digging. One of my favorite reads come from the Duckhorn website, where founder Dan Duckhorn has written an excellent article titled How a Winery Operates which covers the nuts and bolts of running a successful winery. This is a must read for anyone interested in this business.

2. BE A WELL ROUNDED BUSINESSPERSON - The point here is pretty obvious, you can't simply make wine and expect it to sell itself. Furthermore, you can't expect your business to run on autopilot either. Having a strong skill set in marketing, finance, IT, operations, business development, etc., will enhance your chances of success dramatically. I think we score pretty well in this area given our MBA studies and professional experience. However, since this is our first business venture you always have to weigh your knowledge versus experience and realize that things can and will go wrong!

3. MAKE SMART FINANCIAL CHOICES - The article hits upon maintaining a budget and watching costs. I would take this a bit further and mention that you really need to understand the cash flow dynamics of this business and plan your growth accordingly. I have modeled out lots of scenarios quite extensively in order to pinpoint what level of capital injections might be needed over the next several years given how fast we intend to grow. Again, understanding your business--whatever it may be--means knowing the numbers cold. The Duckhorn article mentioned above goes into depth about winery cash flow and inventory issues.

4. KEEP SPACE IN MIND - Given that we are a virtual winery this tip doesn't really apply. Of course, if for some reason we had to take possession of our 50 cases then space here at the homestead might be an issue!!

5. MAKE FRIENDS IN THE INDUSTRY - This tip is right out of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood! I mean, who doesn't like making new friends? Of course, this is good advice, as the industry is full of really great people willing to help newcomers. The team of folks we have worked with at Crushpad have been a pleasure to get to know and the contacts we have made though this blog and elsewhere are all super nice people who obviously share our passion for wine. With social networking and the wine 2.0 movement, making connections is as easy as sending out a quick email. We look forward to continuing to build our network of industry contacts as our business evolves.

6. CHOOSE YOUR LOCATION WISELY - Again, not really applicable to our situation since our business model allows us to run Covered Bridge Cellars from anywhere.

7. PLAN FOR HOW YOUR WINE WILL REACH THE MARKETPLACE - This is a critically important thing to think about before making the leap! Our plan is to focus almost exclusively on generating direct sales. A key part of our strategy is to leverage our blog to generate sign-up's for our mailing list. We are also using our own personal and professional networks to spread the word about our business. Utilizing various social networking platforms has been helpful in this regard. I will have more to say about our marketing approach in a future post.

8. GROW OR SOURCE THE RIGHT FRUIT AND PRACTICE CLEANLINESS - This is one area that I feel we are, as they say in New England, "all set." Our fruit sources are really impressive and represent one aspect of our model that I think helps differentiate us from many other virtual wineries. You can check out the list of vineyards we can source from by visiting this Crushpad page. Obviously there are lots of great vineyards and varietals to choose from, but you can't be all things to all people which is why we have decided to focus exclusively on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. We have flagged Anderson Valley, the Russian River Valley, and Willamette Valley as the winegrowing areas we want to build our business around. We are also going to occasionally offer limited amounts of single vineyard wine from exceptional vineyards outside those regions when the opportunity presents itself. We'll have more to say about our overall product and brand portfolio strategy soon.

9. ALWAYS EVALUATE - The bottom line--find someone who will tell you your wine sucks if it really does!

10. MAKE WINE YOU LOVE (AND THAT OTHER PEOPLE WILL BUY) - I really like this tip. This is exactly how we made the decision to focus on Pinot and Chard and also how we made the stylistic choices for our first vintage. When it comes to Pinot Noir in particular, our portfolio of offerings will definitely reflect the range of styles we seek out in this enticing varietal as wine consumers ourselves. Ultimately, the goal is to make the very best wine we possibly can.

Jeremy

Comments

[Taster A]

Looks like you got a good outlook. There is more to it than barrel samples and label designs! We cannot wait to give your wines a try!

[Jeremy]

Thanks for the comment Taster, I think we are on the right track with things so far!